"Thank you very much, Miss Kilfinane! And now, having spoken your mind on the subject, will you kindly play the accompaniment?" Algernon picked up the piece of music, smoothed it with his hand, placed it on the desk of the piano, and made a little mocking bow to Castalia. His serenity and good humour seemed to irritate her. "I'm sick of Lady Harriet!" she said, querulously, and with a shrug of the shoulders. The action and the words were so plainly indicative of ill temper, that Lady Seely, who waddled into the drawing-room at that moment, asked loudly, "What are you two quarrelling about, eh?" "Oh, what a shocking idea, my lady! We're not quarrelling at all," answered Algernon, raising his eyebrows, and smiling with closed lips. He rarely showed his teeth when he smiled, which circumstance gave his mouth an expression of finesse and delicate irony that was peculiar, and--coupled with the candidly-arched brows--attractive. "Well, it takes two to make a quarrel, certainly," returned my lady. "But Castalia was scolding you, at all events. Weren't you now, Castalia?" Castalia deigned not to reply, but tossed her head, and began to run her fingers over the keys of the piano. "The fact is, Lady Seely," said Algernon, "that Castalia is so convinced that I shall make a mess of this aria--which Lady Harriet Dormer has asked me to sing for her next Saturday--that she declines to play the accompaniment of it for me." "Well, you ought to be immensely flattered, young jackanapes! She wouldn't care a straw about some people's failures, would you, Castalia? Would you mind, now, if Jack Price were to sing a song and make an awful mess of it, eh?" "As to that, it seems to me that Jack Price makes an awful mess of most things he does," replied Castalia. "Ah, exactly! So one mess more or less don't matter. But in the case of our Admirable Crichton here, it is different." "I think he is getting awfully spoiled," said Castalia, a little less crossly. And there was absolutely a blush upon her sallow cheek. "And that's the reason you snub him, is it? You see, Ancram, it's all for your good, if Castalia is a little hard on you!" Miss Kilfinane rose and left the room, saying that she must dress for her drive. "I think Castalia is harder on Lady Harriet than on me," said Algernon, when Castalia was gone. "Ah! H'm! Castalia has lots of good points, but--I daresay you have noticed it--she is given to being a little bit jealous when she cares about people. Now you show a decided liking for Lady Harriet's society, and you crack up her grace, and her elegance, and her taste, and all that. And sometimes I think poor Cassy don't quite like it, don't you know?" "What on earth can it matter to her?" cried Algernon. He knew that Castalia was no favourite with my lady, and he flattered himself that he was becoming a favourite with her. So he spoke with a little half-contemptuous smile, and a shrug of impatience, when he asked, "What on earth can it matter to her?"